ASD Heroes

ASD Heroes

St Conleth's Community College, Kildare

The Social Issue:

This team set out to help sports clubs become more inclusive for people who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The majority of the team were heavily involved in sport and they found that people with ASD were usually left out of sporting activities because clubs may not be able to cater to their sensory needs.

The Idea:

The team began tackling the issue by working with a range of ASD experts to produce instructional videos that explained different games and activities in a way that is easy to understand for someone on the autism spectrum. They met Craig Coffey from Exercising Autism in Carlow, who showed them statistics that prove that exercise for children with autism is extremely good for them. The students also worked with architect Siobhan Gallagher to develop an architecture book that will help clubs to retrofit their facility to suit the sensory needs of someone with ASD. Through their efforts they hope to further UN Sustainable Development Goal 10: "Reduce inequality within and among countries".

It is critical to have a suitable facility to hold sports activities for people with ASD. Without one its so detrimental to the sensory requirements of someone who is trying to participate.

The Impact:

With the goal of collaborating with a local team, they hope that they can set an example for other clubs to become more inclusive.The team are aiming for  their town to become one of the autism-friendly towns in Ireland and hope that in the future they could create an app that can help sports clubs to include people with ASD. The journey of the team brought them all the way to the Young Social Innovators Ireland Awards 2020 where they won the Make Our World More Inclusive and Poverty Free Challenge Awards in 2020.